UPDATE: Rowfant House to be sold

James Oxenham

An historic Crawley Down estate could be sold by the summer, owners have announced.

It was revealed today that Rowfant House, in Wallage Lane, is closing.

The estate has been running functions and events including weddings, conferences and afternoon tea since the 1960s. It also runs a care home at the site which looks after 17 elderly residents.

Earlier today it was confirmed the care home would be closing on May 4.

Rowfant has since announced the restaurant and bar facilities, used for hosting events, have closed with immediate effect. All spring and summer events have also been cancelled.

However, Rowfant House Ltd said it would ‘honour’ any weddings and functions which had been booked for the summer and it was in the process of speaking to customers.

“Where we have taken any deposits on other future restaurant or events bookings, customer deposits will be repaid in full within 14 days. We regret we cannot take any more function bookings for this summer,” the company said.

Rowfant House Ltd said it had come to the ‘end of its journey’ and was looking to sell the estate with the hope a new buyer could be found by the summer.

A statement reads: “After everything we have been through this has been a very difficult decision for us to come to but we must act in the best interests of all our stakeholders and now begin the process of bringing our journey to an end.

“It is likely that the estate will be marketed for sale over the summer with the aim of a completion once we have delivered all our current order book.

“We would like to take this opportunity to thank most warmly all those customers and other friends of Rowfant who have supported us so very enthusiastically. We will miss you all very much.”